Autonomy

First Germaine Greer and her bus trip - now another Guardian diatribe against Dubai... get over it guys...

"I can only imagine that Dubai will one day be seen as a punctuation mark on the architectural follies of the past half century. This off-the-shelf city state has been built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid. Its sheikh was not a complete fool, like comparable African and Latin American autocrats. He realised that city states cannot live on one product alone, unless it is money. Since he had no oil, he would drill for money."

Can Dubai sue for libel?!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ne-middle-east

admon

why, is there a libellous comment in that quote?

I've read it three times and I can't see any issue with it..

The Dean

I agree with it too.

It's not gloating - it's just refreshing to find a Western journo that recognises that the Emperor never actually had any clothes.............

admon

I disagree with your quote though, as surely the journo is just bandwagon jumping. Maybe he invested in jbr..

MacScot

The piece by Simon Jenkins comes under the category "Comment is free" but, like so many newspapers including the Guardian now, there is an increasing trend not to allow the public to comment on such 'stories'.

'Tis a pity though, because public posts often challenge the 'facts' or weak arguments presented by such authors, and the public's posts are often far more interesting and enlightening than the original article.

littlejimmy

I think he means the bit about the money laundering.

Where's DohaR by the way?

shakh your bootie

It's interesting that he points out that there is histroical precedence for a city to fall into decline and urban decay:

http://www.seedetroit.com/pictures/urbandecay/

One wouldn't wish such a fate on Dubai, but it isn't beyond the realms of possibility.....

bimcnorth

The irony is that it´s more likely to happen to a number of UK cities that are really being squeezed relentlessly right now..and almost happened to a number of northern cities in the 80´s.

Dubai is first and foremost a trading port and financial hub, as long as the merchants and such are still in place all is well and all will be well.

TGFKASE

As much as I hate to say it, I agree with SYB, its not beyond the realms of possibility...

The vast majority of westerners are only aware of 2 'western-friendly' countries out here, Bahrain and the UAE (most folks in the west have never heard of Qatar and Oman..!!!). Right now, all they know is that there are rumblings coming out of Bahrain of serious internal conflicts between the Shia majority and the ruling Sunni minority.. Add to that the well-publicised restrictions on media reporting and the court cases that seem to fly in the face of the supposed open arms to the west, more and more people are starting to spend their tourist dollars away from the ME. That is seriously going to affect the Dubai master plan, trade or not...

Ethos83

Interesting article, perhaps a bit extreme. But it does clearly point out that Dubai's future is far from asserted.

Shanghai was a fantastic boomtown in the 1920s and 1930s, when my grandfather lived there with his family (he was the expat brat of the day). As with Dubai, the westerners in Shanghai lived in large villas, had maids, cheap food, and a glamorous lifestyle when compared to the home countries. Shanghai, like China, had a great deal of promise that attracted many people from all over the world. There were the Russians, the prostitutions, the shady money-laundering characters, and the prim and proper Western families turning a blind eye to the teeming, overpopulated slums.


But crap happened.

The world is littered with cities that rose to great prominence in boom years, but sharply fell and essentially shuttered down when the economic, social and political forces changed. We're so used to stability in the West that the notion of a city completely changing, and rapidly at that, is foreign to us.

bimcnorth

Erm, Shanghai of today seems to have fulfilled that vision...

Charismatic

QUOTE=Ethos83;7403527]The world is littered with cities that rose to great prominence in boom years, but sharply fell and essentially shuttered down when the economic, social and political forces changed.[/QUOTE] Should Palmira be Dubai's twin city then?

Ethos83

You're forgetting the Japanese invasion, WWII, the rounding up of expats into prison camps, and the communist takeover. It took Shanghai fifty years to recover.

Say Israel and Iran go to war with each other, and threats of nuclear bombs are being tossed about. What will the expats of Dubai do?

I for one, will be on the first plane back home.

bimcnorth

50 years is nothing, the expats of Dubai just temporary anyway...trade matters more than human conditions in the life of a city.

And I´ll sit tight despite war threats, that is how you make money.

Confucius

I'll stay here...Iranian rockets wont reach Israel, they'll explode over Lebanon...